Al Fin Del Mundo
by beingzen
Summary: Kanda and Jun are sent on a mission to Spain with a complete lack of information that brought them deadly complications. Kanda/OC. Mentions of Lavi/OC and Allen/Lenalee. M for gore and possible sex.
1. Your Majesty!

I want to dedicate this story to DGMLover12564. Thanks for your support! I kinda got down to writing this piece because of your last review. You're great!

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Allen jumped back and skidded through the pavement a couple of feet before coming to a stop just at the border of the veranda they had previously destroyed during their fight. He brought his sword up, in front of his chest, just in time to block his opponent's strike. Both men stood there trying to push each other backwards, beads of sweat rolling down their frowning faces and, even if the other man was wearing a black mask over his eyes, Allen _knew_ he was frowning. That was _his_ default expression after all. The thought brought another wave of frustration over the albino's body and he threw his leg forwards in an attempt to trip his opponent but, as he knew it would happen, the samurai avoided it easily by jumping back and Allen took the chance to step away from the edge of the building.

The samurai wasted little time in following Allen and resuming his relentless attack. From the corner of his eye, Allen saw his red headed companion come to, after he'd gotten rid of the butterflies around him. What happened to Tyki Mikk?

The only warning they had that an attack was coming was the command of 'GROW' Lavi shouted before a humungous black hammer smashed the place where the two figures had previously been fighting.

'Lavi!' Allen shouted, annoyed at his thoughtless companion.

Lavi gave him a nervous laugh and a breathless apology before being attacked by the samurai.

The fight continued, two against one, but the man the exorcists were fighting never faltered and never stopped. His devotion clear in each slice of his katana and each step, punch and kick. His eyes were trained on his opponents, reading every single move and thoughts even. It helped a lot that he already knew their techniques, their strengths and their weaknesses. He had only twitched _once_ when Allen had called his name in the early stages of their fight.

'What's taking so long, Kanda?' a female voice called from the wide staircase. The woman was also wearing a black mask over her eyes, lined with silver and dotted with gems. A big, ostentatious, golden crown was comfortably sitting on her curly mass of long hair and she was wearing a red dress embed with jewels and golden thread. She looked like the queen she was supposed to be. 'Finish them off!'

'Yes, my Lady (1)'

As he said that, Kanda invoked his innocence and, with his upmost speed, slashed at the pillars supporting the ceiling right above the two young exorcists in front of him.

Seeing through his move, Lavi pulled Allen away from the impending danger and to the weakened veranda, and then he extended his hammer and retreated. The stone and wooden structure of the remaining veranda gave way under the weight of the massive hammer and finally fell taking the red headed exorcist's innocence with it.

Kanda frowned and tched sheathing his katana with seething anger. Deciding that it wasn't worth it, he turned to his queen, quickly making his way towards her. As soon as he reached her, he bowed his head and offered his arm to her in an invitation to escort her out of the wrecked room.

His arm wasn't grabbed like he had expected though. Instead a stinging pain assaulted his cheek and the impact made his head turn to the side. The black mask that covered his face fell to the floor with a clatter that raped the otherwise deadly silence. Kanda's eyes were wide for a total of three seconds, before he closed them and bowed to his queen, his bangs hiding the pained expression and utter defeat.

'I told you to finish them off.' The woman said in an icy tone that most definitely did not belong to that person and oh, how he hated it!

'Yes, my Lady.'

'Do not come back until they're dead.'

The clicking of her shoes was the only indication the samurai had that the queen had retreated to her chambers.

With a shaky sigh and an equally trembling hand, Kanda picked up the fallen mask and covered his eyes once again. He steadied his breathing and left the room in order to follow the two exorcists that had probably cost him his queen's life. The red carpet where his fist had been supporting his bowed body now had three round stains that would most likely be dry by the time he came back. A pair of pristine and expensive black shoes stepped next to them and a twisted, cruel grin split the owner's face in two.

-o0o- Three weeks prior -o0o-

The chill of the morning did nothing to cool his overheated skin as the muscles on his arms flexed in preparation for his attack. He observed his training partner with an impassive face as she also measured his next move. He smirked and moved. His speed was matched only by the person in front of him as she managed to parry and counter attack in a flow of movements he had taught her years ago.

'You have improved.' Kanda panted.

'Thanks.' Jun wheezed.

There was a slight movement on their feet and both counterparts jumped to attack each other again.

Training with Jun was always a strenuous physical activity and, after a week without his innocence, Kanda welcomed it. He had missed Mugen dearly after they all came back from the ark. Jun had been extremely pissed with him and she refused to talk to him until HQ was attacked by that level four akuma. After that she yelled even more at him for fighting the bloody thing without his innocence, calling him and the Baka Usagi "a pair of reckless fools". Their time together after that had become a bit more physical than Kanda even expected and the thought of it still made them blush.

It was only when the both of them were lying breathless and exhausted in the middle of the training ground that Kanda and Jun decided that some breakfast was in order. So, after a quick refreshing shower, both teens met at the cafeteria to feed their growling stomachs.

'Jun, my friend!' Lavi called from the table he was sharing with Allen and Lenalee.

'Morning Lavi.' She greeted with a grin. 'Allen-kun and…Link-san…?'

'Good morning, Jun-chan.' Lenalee chirped happily only to be ignored once again by Jun.

Kanda tched and the atmosphere became a lot darker. It was a fact that the Caribbean girl hate the Chinese, so why did Lenalee even tried was an utter mystery to Kanda.

'So, Yuu, you got Mugen back I see.' Lavi commented in an attempt to break the silence. The use of Kanda's first name got him a dark glare and death threat.

'You haven't got yours back I see.' Jun asked Lavi.

'Yeah, Nao said they're having a hard time fixing it since a few bits got downloaded into the new ark when we fell down.' Lavi explained. 'Nao looks a lot better now, you know, with all the Tapp incident and all…'

'Yeah. The whole department was shaken up after he…Johnny was the closest one to him anyway. I hope he's ok.' Allen lamented.

'I happen to have baked a cake this morning, if anyone cares to try?' offered Link in a polite gesture, showing off his very delicious looking cake.

'Kanda-san! Jun-san!' Chaoji called from the entrance to the cafeteria waving a hand in the air. 'Komui wants to see you!'

Before they opened the door to Komui's office, Jun pulled Kanda by the front of his sleeveless top and kissed him square on the lips effectively stunning the samurai. As soon as Kanda recovered from his shock, he kissed her back just as fiercely. They were still getting used to the lovers part of their relationship.

'What was that for?' he asked her in a softer tone than he would normally use.

'Just felt like it.' Jun answered with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Kanda didn't feel the need to pry though. If it was important, Jun would let him know sooner or later.

If Kanda had asked her about it, he'd probably dismiss Jun's uneasiness as anxiety after the Noah's Ark incident.

'You're going to Spain.' Komui announced. 'I sent finders to a small village where the appearance of akuma was reported, to make sure there was innocence activity but the finders failed to report back.'

The exorcists nodded their understandment and received the briefing files from Reever.

'There's barely any information here.' Kanda noted. The lack of details bothered him more than he cared to admit.

'Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, that is all the data we were able to retrieve. It is for that purpose that we built his!' Komui announced sounding incredibly proud of his new invention, showing a golem to the pair. 'This is what we call a wireless golem. This beauty doesn't need to be connected to a phone for you to be able to call HQ!'

The Chinese man released the flying black golem and activated it but as soon as the little round piece of machinery extended its wings it malfunctioned.

The golem started vibrating in mid-air and then flew towards Komui. The supervisor didn't have time to capture the black menace before it shredded his coat and his shirt, leaving his chest bare for the world to see. After Komui, the golem flew at all speed in Reever's direction. The scientist tried dodging it behind a pile of reports and other papers but it hardly did anything to deter the little failed gadget.

As soon as Reever was relieved of his jacket and shirt it was Jun's turn. She saw the winged shredder come at her with wide eyes one second and the next second it was vibrating madly in the middle of the floor, his right hemisphere severed from his left in a clean cut made by Mugen.

'Stupid supervisor!' the furious man yelled.

'Sup. Komui! There are more discreet ways to kill a person than packing faulty machinery into their supplies!' Complained Reever.

The pair left the room before their supervisor tried to help them even more.

-o0o-

The trip to Spain was just a boring and uneventful as any other trip. Train, then ship and then train again. The landscape outside the windows changed from forests to ocean and to forests again, until they reached the south of the peninsula where the predominant type of tree was the olive. Kanda and Jun spent a lot of time simply sleeping since not even the mission briefing could serve them as a distraction this time. The uneasy feeling Jun had experienced before still lingering in her mind.

As soon as the exorcists arrived at their destination they were welcomed with silence. The villagers at the coastal town of "Pacífica" either avoided them or just plain ignored them. Kanda couldn't care less seeing as the only thing he wanted was to get the innocence and leave. According to the report, the finders all disappeared from their inns after they'd gone and see the ruins of the castle in the forest next to the village. There wasn't any sign of battle or anything that could indicate akuma attacks.

Being fluent in Spanish, Jun had tried asking the villagers, but really, what could a girl do if all you get from the inhabitants are glares and threats? Even the inn keepers had shooed them away from their inns at the mention of the castle or the finders. The pair of exorcists was about ready to give up and storm their way through the ruins, finders be damned!

Until a young pair of teenagers tried to rob them that is.

The two unfortunate boys had ran past them and knocked Jun over Kanda, taking a hold of their travel bags and pulling them away from their owners however they didn't know Kanda's short fuse was already at the end of its life already. Before Jun could even try to stop him, the dark haired samurai had summoned his Hell's Insects effectively catching the thieves. The boys were a screaming heap on the dusty floor, trying to untangle themselves from their theft and each other. Kanda slowly walked up to them, hoisted them by the neck of their vests and gave them a freezing glare that made them stop their struggles.

'¡No fui yo!' (I didn't do it!) One of the teens screamed. He seemed to be the younger of the two, his hair was a messy mass of dirty blonde, he had freckles on his cheeks and his eyes were the darkest shade of green either Kanda or Jun had ever seen. '¡Él me obligó!' (He made me do it!)

'¡Mentiras! ¡Él fue quién me obligó a mí! ¡Mátelo a él!' (Lies! He's the one who made me do it! Kill him!) The other teen screamed trying to kick his friend. The older boy had shoulder length dark hair, tan skin and dark brown eyes. A small scar ran over the bottom of his left eye and he had a ring pierced on his ear that vaguely reminded the exorcists of their friend Baka Usagi.

Both teens proceeded to try and kick the other while slowly slipping from their vests in an attempt to escape. Kanda however, wasn't having any of it. He harshly brought them together making them hit their heads against the other. The youngsters winced and kept still rubbing at their heads and screaming bloody murder at the samurai who was now smirking with satisfaction.

Jun rubbed at her temples and sighed. Then she addressed the teens with an evil smirk. 'A mi sirviente le encantan los jovenzuelos ladrones como ustedes. Especialmente al desayuno. ¿Sabían que él es un akuma?' (My servant loves youngster thieves like you. Especially for breakfast. He's an akuma you know?) The exorcist rejoiced at the terrified look on the boys' faces, the pale shade telling her that her little lie was working. Kanda didn't like the tone Jun's voice had taken and the fact that he didn't understand what she was saying didn't help his frown lighten.

'¡Por favor, señora, no deje que nos coma!' (Please, ma'am, don't let him eat us!) Begged freckles.

'¡No le íbamos a gustar mucho, nuestra carne es dura y sin sabor! ¡Tampoco tenemos mucha!' (He wouldn't like us very much, our meat is hard and tasteless! We don't have much of it to begin with!) Argued scar.

'¡Tenemos siete hermanas y ocho hermanos hambrientos esperándonos en casa! ¡Por favor tenga piedad!' (We've got seven sisters and eight brothers starving, waiting for us at home! Please have mercy!) Continued freckles.

Jun stared them down for a total of five seconds before she broke down laughing shocking, not only the teens, but Kanda as well.

'¡No teman! Somos exorcistas de la Orden. Solo venimos a investigar las ruinas del Castillo.' (Don't be afraid! We're exorcists of the Order. We came to investigate the ruins of the Castle.) Jun finally explained with a smile. The teens visibly relaxed and looked at each other in bewilderment and then at Jun.

'¿Que quieren con nosotros?' (What do you want with us?) Scar asked and both boys paled when the evil glint in Jun's smirk returned.

Kanda liked that attitude better.

-o0o-

The forest next to the castle ruins was one of the darkest ones Kanda had ever travelled through. The dense foliage made the way a lot more difficult that it was needed and the hidden path caused both exorcists to miss a step or two more than once. The two captives that were guiding them remained quiet the whole way either for being too scared to say anything to Kanda or for being too scared to alert any dangerous animal or akuma hiding in the forest. They had been pretty adamant that something _bad_ was hiding in the green expanse of trees when Kanda had tied them up and made them guide them to the castle ruins. Jun had wanted to release freckles when he started to cry.

The boys had explained that a week prior to any finder coming to the area, the forest they were trying to cross was nothing more than a bunch of olive trees and some eucalypts around the castle ruins, but one morning, after a particularly stormy night, the village woke up to the sight of trees they couldn't name.

The party sent to investigate never came back.

That was when the finders started to appear and, one after another they all went missing the night after they had come back from the ruins, all gone without a trace of their existence.

The walk to the castle took the party most of the day and Kanda finally decided that they could release their captives. Kanda expected them to hightail out of there as soon as the ropes were off them, but they didn't. Instead they turned to Jun with sombre expressions and resumed their annoying babble in that foreign language. Oh, how Kanda hated not knowing what they were talking about!

'¿Si encuentra la inocencia que busca, que hará?' (If you find the innocence you're seeking, what'll you do?) Freckles asked, his head bowed and his eyes hidden by his messy mop of hair.

Jun looked from him to Scar and back, their gloomy expressions and questioning glances making her feel uneasy. 'Nuestra misión es recuperar la inocencia.' (Our mission is to recover the innocence.)

Scar frowned. '¿Y si la inocencia ha poseído a una persona?' (What if the innocence has possessed a person?)

_Oh!_ Though Jun, _so that's how it is…_ 'Entonces tenemos que encontrar una forma de extraer la inocencia, a menos que la persona sea compatible. En ese caso la persona viene con nosotros.' (Then we have to find a way to extract the innocence, unless the person is compatible. In that case the person comes with us.)

The explanation made Freckles look up and both boys' eyes widen in horror.

'Por sus reacciones debo deducir que ustedes saben más de lo que nos dijeron antes.' (From your reaction I must deduce that you know more than what you've told us before.)

It was Scar's turn to speak. 'Nuestra hermana está en el Castillo.' (Our sister is in the castle.)

'What the hell are they saying, shrimp?' Kanda asked, obviously annoyed at being left out, his hand twitching next to Mugen and a pulsing vein appear in his frowning forehead.

Jun ignored him in order to ask the boys something else in Spanish and Kanda started a chant of "must not kill" in his head.

'Cuando nuestro padre desapareció, nuestra hermana menor vino al bosque a buscarlo. Nosotros la seguimos adentro del castillo, pero no la encontramos.' (When our father disappeared, our younger sister came to the forest to look for him. We followed her, but we couldn't find her.)

Jun smiled at them. 'No se preocupen. Así que tengamos la inocencia, el efecto que ella tiene sobre las ruinas y el bosque debe desaparecer y, si su padre y hermana siguen con vida, ellos mismos volverán a casa.' (Don't worry. As soon as we have the innocence, the effect that it has on the ruins and the forest should disappear and, if you father and sister are still alive, they'll go home on their own.)

The boys smiled, nodded and turned to leave. Jun watched them go with a hard squeeze on her chest.

Once again she chose to stay silent. If she would have said something this time, Kanda would have believed her as he also felt something was terribly wrong with this mission.

They looked at each other and, after Jun took her time to explain everything the boys had told her, they made their way carefully to the broken wall of what surely would have been a majestic castle once.

As soon as they crossed the stone barrier, they were met, not by the ruins they could clearly see from the outside, but the intact and pristine version the castle had most likely been centuries before. They looked back at the hole in the wall they'd come from and found a solid and very tall stone wall, on top of which several men dressed in metal armour were walking along its length and keeping an eye out for intruders. One of the guards descended the stairs and bowed before them in respect.

'Bienvenida a casa, Majestad. Me alegra ver que se encuentra bien.' (Welcome home, Majesty. I am pleased to see you're safe.) The man said. '¿Puedo preguntar, su majestad, sobre la identidad de su compañero?' (May I inquire, your Majesty, about the identity of your companion?)

Jun tried to compose herself before she answered. 'Me temo que se equivoca. Yo no soy quien piensas que soy. Mi compañero y yo somos exorcistas; vinimos a investigar el local.' (I'm afraid you're mistaken. I am not who you think I am. My companion and I are exorcists; we came to investigate the site.)

The man straighten up and frowned, looking at Jun intently while she whispered the translation to Kanda and the later proceeded to look at the first with an expression not many had ever seen in the samurai's face: utter confusion.

Kanda voiced the question that prevented Jun of thinking any further: 'What the fuck is going on here?'

'He's saying that he thinks is better to go inside.' Jun translated as the man kept fretting that the sun had probably gotten to her during her travels to the east.

Kanda tched and followed the panicking man. They did want to go inside anyway so why refuse the free guide?

The interior of the castle was just as big and majestic as the exterior. The walls were a deep shade of velvet red and the floor pure and massive oak. To their left were several sets of glass double doors that led to a massive veranda made of stone and wood. The entirety of the main hall's walls was decorated with brilliant lights in between massive windows and covering those windows there were velvet black curtains laced with gold and silver. The ceiling was also a dark velvet colour and, right in the middle, where the seams meet, was huge grand chandelier covered in crystals that reflected the light into the walls creating a rainbow of colours that certainly drowned the orange tones of the sunset outside.

The guard stopped right after passing the doubled doors and was promptly met by another man, clad in black that the exorcists correctly assumed was a butler.

'¿Alteza, donde ha estado?' (Highness, where have you been?) The man asked with a worried frown inspecting Jun for any injuries or bruises. '¿Porque trae estos trajes tan asquerosos, Majestad? ¡No importa! El baño está preparado. ¿Quién es este?' (Why are wearing those disgusting clothes, Majesty? It doesn't matter! The bath is ready. Who is this?) The man had said all this in one single breath completely startling Jun and Kanda. The samurai had instantly brought one hand to his katana.

'¡Por última vez, ya le dije al guardia de antes y se lo digo a usted: yo no soy quien ustedes piensan! Kanda y yo somos exorcistas de la Orden Oscura y estamos aquí para llevarnos la inocencia!' (For the last time, I already said to the guard before and I say it to you: I'm not who you think I am! Kanda and I are exorcists of the Dark Order and we are here to take the innocence!) Jun exploded. She was honestly staring to panic at all the people around her calling her "Majesty" and "Highness".

'¡Hermana, has vuelto!' Exclaimed an almost childish female voice from the top of the wide staircase and a short lean girl ran down to meet the exorcists with a hug and an indignant exclamation of '¡Majestad!' from the butler. As soon as Jun took a look at the girl in her arms she realised that indeed they did look alike and all the confusion the people in the castle were making started to click together. The girl had long dark hair, tan skin and eyes so red they looked more like rubies cut out from the most expensive of jewellery.

Jun tried once again to explain who they were. Her explanation however continued to fall on deaf ears and the girl went on and on about the long six years her big sister was supposed to have been abroad on a peace treaty with the desert countries. Both Kanda, whose identity was still a mystery to the princess and the inhabitants of the castle, and Jun were lead to separate rooms where their respective baths were ready for them as well as a change of clothes that looked like they belonged to a completely different century. Kanda found himself wearing the same clothes he'd come to the castle with instead. There was absolutely no way he was ever going to get caught wearing tights!

Kanda took a look around the room that was assigned to him. It looked exactly like a room made for a nobleman with a veranda that overlooked the forest, a double sized canopy bed with silk sheets, crystal lamps and a massive dresser. Looking down the veranda, Kanda realized it was situated immediately above the one they saw in the main hall. He paced through the room for a few minutes trying to analyse the situation at hand. What bothered the samurai wasn't the fact that they had virtually stepped into another dimension obviously certainly created by the innocence, but the fact that they could enter it without a problem. They encountered no akuma or other phenomena in the woods that'd hinder their mission. Only the very annoying behaviour of the people inside the castle could be counted a hindrance. According to Jun's hasty and panicky translations, he'd gathered that the people thought of her as some kind of princess that had been away for years.

He tched again. Yeah, right.

Then there was he matter of the people themselves. They were real living humans, not akuma or illusions. As far as he knew, innocence didn't create humans out of thin air. He entertained the idea that those humans were in fact the missing villagers and finders, but that didn't explain their behaviour at all. Unless they were all suffering from collective amnesia or the innocence somehow confused their brains. As strange as that hypothesis sounded, it seemed perfectly plausible. Maybe the young princess was also a villager. In that case the innocence could only be inside the castle. The positive side was they wouldn't have to search the forest. No matter how big the castle was, Kanda thought of that as an improvement.

He sighed deeply and laid back on the king sized canopy bed with an arm above his eyes. He was way too tired for this. He would certainly have to talk to Jun sometime that night if they wanted to get started. Maybe he would chance a few hours of sleep before he sneaked out?

A knock on the door prevented him from doing that, though and he didn't even have time to stand up before Jun was already barging in with a hurried 'Sorry to come in like this, but I need to hide and quickly!' The next thing Kanda saw was the curly haired exorcist dressed in a red long dress, climbing the canopy of the bed in the same instant the butler from earlier that day knocked on his door and opened it with a curt 'Excuse me'.

Kanda nodded at the man as he bowed to him and talked in perfect English. 'Please excuse my intrusion, estimated guest, but I am currently looking for Princess Adriana. Perhaps you have seen her?'

Kanda narrowed his eyes before replying with a short 'No.' was that supposed to be the person they took Jun for?

'Oh, well, thank you very much and I'm sorry to bother you, estimated guest. I will humbly ask you to please let the Princess know that her sister Amelia is waiting for her at the piano room, if you see her. The Princess has always had a tendency to run away, as I am sure you know.'

Kanda raised an eyebrow, silently urging the man to leave. The butler took a look inside the room once again before he made his exit, closing the door gently behind his back. The dark haired samurai waited a whole minute before peeking through the edge of the canopy to find Jun. The girl was sprawled as much as she could on top of the wooden frame to try and spread her weight and avoid destroying the structure. Kanda smirked as he helped her down.

'Thanks…' she breathed and looked up at Kanda's face, her hands curled between their chests as the long haired man held her gently by her waist.

'What was that?' he asked softly.

'That was Bertram, the butler.' She answered. 'I am Princess Adriana, apparently and I am supposed to become Queen Adriana in a couple of days during my wedding to Lord Michael.'

That sentence drew a frown from Kanda. 'You're getting married to whom?'

Jun smiled and blushed profusely. 'I am not getting married, Kanda. Princess Adriana is. That is why we have to get that damn innocence and leave this place immediately.'

'I was working on that when you came in.' Kanda whispered, his head lowering slightly and his eyelids dropping.

'I thought you were asleep.' Jun whispered back as her own eyelids dropped and she tilted her head to the side to allow Kanda a better access. With a smirk in place and a fast heartbeat, Kanda brought his lips down to Jun's in a soft caress. Their eyes closed and their arms tightened around each other in order to feel more of the other, to bring close their heartbeats and keep them there. When they broke apart both their faces were dusted a light pink. Kanda's thumb caressed over Jun's bottom lip and he dove for another kiss, this time more passionate and harsh than the previous. He slowly pushed the girl backwards, onto the bed and he laid there next to her with his arms securely around her body and their foreheads touching.

'I feel so tired…' Jun whispered with her eyes already closed.

Kanda kept his silence so as to let the girl sleep. When her breathing had evened out and he was absolutely sure she was asleep he chanced a squeeze and a kiss to her forehead before he too rested his head on the pillow.

-o0o-

The noise at the castle was too much for anyone to be able to sleep through, much less a samurai trained to wake up at the slightest of movements so obviously he was wide awake for a few hours before the butler- Bambi? Beethoven?- knocked on the door again and made his entrance with an apology. The man didn't stop at the door this time though. His long strides were muffled in the carpeted floor as tried to approach the bed where Kanda and Jun were lying. Kanda didn't take it kindly to being rudely woken up, much less to people intruding his room without his consent. In less than a second he had Mugen on his hand, the tip of the katana barely piercing the skin of the butler's neck.

'One more step and I'll roast you on a spit.' He threatened darkly.

The butler swallowed thickly and retreated to a safe distance from Mugen and Kanda.

'Princess Adriana has a visitor. Lord Michael is here to see his bride.'

When the butler didn't leave, Kanda narrowed his eyes and glared at the man to the best of his abilities. 'Noted.' He said dryly. He was honestly impressed that Bernard or whatever didn't run away to a faraway land after being on the receiving end of his fury. Instead he bowed and retreated from the room at a normal speed, closing the door softly behind his back.

The sound of rapid, heavy footsteps running down the corridor made Kanda smirk.

'Bertram's morning doesn't seem to be an improvement from yesterday's evening.' Jun commented after a yawn. 'Good morning, Kanda.'

Kanda grunted in response and stood up from the bed, stretching his stiff muscles. Jun stood after him straightening her dress. She gave up when she realised she'd been lying on it for too long for the creases to disappear.

'You look good in red.' Kanda commented in a low tone that Jun wasn't sure was for her to hear. She did, though and she loved it. She stepped up to the dark haired samurai wrapping her arms around his neck in an act of affection and long Kanda's faint blush even more.

Kanda wrapped his arms around Jun's waist and pulled her close tom himself kissing her lips gently at first and increasing in passion as the seconds ticked away. He brought a hand to Jun's neck, caressing her jaw with his thumb as they made out for minutes.

The intense feeling of possession their kisses and caresses gave him made something else stir inside Kanda. A much more primal and deep feeling he didn't want to act upon right then and there so he begrudgingly yet gently pushed his girlfriend arms way away and sighed.

It took Jun two seconds to understand Kanda's reaction. When she did she smiled. 'Let's just get the innocence and get out of this freak show.'

'There's only one problem.' Kanda whispered, absently wondering if his own lips looked as swollen as Jun's did. He decided she looked quite delicious at that moment.

'We don't know where or what the innocence looks like…' Jun finished for him.

Kanda tched at the notion. He replaced the strap that had fallen back to Jun's shoulder and kissed her again before turning to get his exorcist coat. 'I hope you have Sazansouru (2) with you.'

Jun grinned widely, stepping on the bed and extending her arm on top of the canopy to pull her twin short sabres and strap them to her hip. 'Let's just go down and investigate, shall we?'

Kanda smirked and they left the room together but the pair didn't even make it to the end of the corridor without Jun being tackled to the floor by Princess Amelia.

'¿Dónde estabas hermana? ¡No te vi en tu cuarto esta noche! ¡Yo quería dormir contigo como hacíamos antes que te fueras!' (Where were you, sis? I didn't see you in your room last night! I wanted to cuddle with you like we used to do before you left!)

'¡Princesa, por favor entienda! ¡Yo no soy su hermana! ¡Mi nombre es Jun Avila y mi hermana se llama Nao Avila! ¡Las dos trabajamos para la Orden Oscura!' (Princess, please understand! I'm not your sister! My name is Jun Avila and my sister is called Nao Avila! The two of us work for the Dark Order!) Jun tried once more to tell the Princess, but the little bubble of energy was having none of it. She kept babbling about Lord Michael and how handsome he was and how he was surely going to be a great King!

Jun looked pleadingly at Kanda who sighed in utter annoyance and pulled the two apart by the back of their dresses.

'¿Quién es este, hermana?' (Who is this, sister?) The Princess asked, finally taking notice of the other person present. '¿Es tu sirviente verdad? ¿Te conseguiste un sirviente en tu viaje a Asia, verdad? ¡Que fascinante!' (He's your servant, right? You got yourself a servant in your trip to Asia, right? How fascinating!)

'I give up!' Jun cried and added at Kanda's raised eyebrow: 'Believe me, you're better off not knowing…'

Kanda scoffed.

'¡Princesas! ¡Lord Michael las está esperando!' (Princesses! Lord Michael is waiting!) The butler called. Princess Amelia latched herself to Jun's arm and happily pulled her down the corridor and to the main hall where a tall man was waiting, looking outside the window. He was wearing a black suit and a tall top hat. When the man turned around, the whole world seemed to slow down to a frame per minute pace and the exorcists eyes widened in horror.

'Tyki…'

'…Mikk'

'We meet again, Mr. Kitchen Knife.'

* * *

(1) I was so dying to make him say that!

(2) Sazansouru is Jun's innocence: a pair of short sabres that she keeps sheathed at her waist.


	2. Masquerade

The moment those words were uttered from the Noah's mouth, both the exorcists and Tyki Mikk disappeared for a second and reappeared in the middle of the main hall engaged in combat. Their speed was such that it was impossible for the naked eyed to follow. Kanda charged at the man slashing through the air with a deadly Mugen at the same time that Jun used her Sazansouru sabres to block the Noah's escape.

Tyki was at a clear disadvantage and he loved it. He loved the thrill of any battle he fought with the exorcists, especially the Japanese one but he had a mission this time and he couldn't afford to be delayed or fail…again. The Earl would have his hide if he got himself wounded so thoroughly like the last time. Oh how he owed that Walker a rematch!

He called forth his level two akuma to distract the little lady while he played with the samurai long enough to locate his intended target.

Jun gave a series of leaps backwards in order to escape the attacks of her opponents. She kept jumping and blocking the attacks the two level twos sent her way. One of the akuma looked like a cross between a bird and a dog. It kept throwing feathers from its wings that sliced through anything, according to the akuma itself. Jun parried an attack from that one with her sabres and smirked at the surprised noise it made.

'It doesn't cut through innocence, though. Pretty useless if you ask me!' she bragged.

'Then how about this?!' the second akuma announced and immediately tried to smash the place where Jun had been seconds prior to her jump. This akuma resembled more a teddy bear than a killing machine, with long thick arms that it used to heavily smash anything in its vicinity. It was making a pretty damn good job at that too since its speed was next to null, giving Jun enough time to get out of the way before she became the castle's new carpet.

The double doors burst open just then, letting a terrified man run inside screaming for help. Behind him a level one akuma shot randomly all around itself, destroying everything and killing everyone on its path. Jun swore. If those things got out of the castle they'd be in real trouble.

'Don't get distracted!' The akuma yelled at her and threw a new round of feathers at her. Tired of just running around and already having gathered all the info she needed about her opponents, Jun charged ahead with a yell of "Netsutaikai!" After slicing cleanly through the akuma's neck with this attack, the machine started drowning in illusionary salty water. Soon after, it exploded into bits of machinery, poisonous blood and sea foam from the innocence's attack that killed it.

'One down, one to go.' She muttered, facing the teddy bear. The akuma screamed at her and slammed its oversized arms on the floor repeatedly in a vain attempt at squashing the exorcist. It finally stopped when it couldn't see anything from all the dust around it. A second later it was also drowning in the middle of the room and exploding shortly after.

Jun stood straight and sliced her sabres to try and rid them of the akuma blood, then she ran to the front doors to try and stop the akuma outside from killing every living thing in the castle. A girl's scream made her blood freeze.

'C'mon, Mr. Kitchen Knife! You were a lot faster last time we met!' taunted Tyki as he easily avoided Kanda's attacks. The dark haired samurai decided it was time he cut the crap and invoked his second Illusion.

Tyki Mikk also started using his second hand. At the same time he invoked tease to try and distract the samurai, but so far the murderous raven headed male was intent on getting the Portuguese's head on a platter.

The duo kept slashing and parrying each other's attacks at a hallucinating speed. Tyki saw his opening and slashed at Kanda's legs to try and unbalance him, but Kanda saw it coming a second before and jumped out the way, using the force of his landing to propel him forwards again, Mugen's tip flying rapidly towards Mikk's chest. Tyki managed to evade being impaled by the innocence and countered with his own blade to Kanda's side. This time Kanda couldn't evade on time or even parry, resulting on a shallow gash to his side that he completely ignored in favour of giving his opponent his gift back.

The fight continued in its deadly speed until the sound of heavy pounding on the floor, closely followed by the shaking and cracking of the stone under his feet urged Kanda to fall back into higher ground and fast. He lost sight of the Noah he was fighting so, assuming that the man had also taken cover for the moment, he looked at the wreckage down below. He could see the gigantic akuma flaunting its oversized arms around and screaming as clear salty water kept coming out of it in rivers. Kanda smirked. He'd always remember the time he met the Avila sisters whenever he'd witness that attack since he'd almost drowned himself back in Venezuela.

A piercing scream stole his attention back to the top of the staircase where he could clearly see the Noah slowly advancing towards a very frightened Princess Amelia. In second he also saw Jun jumping in between the Noah and the Princess and distracting the Noah's attention to her. With an annoyed "tch" he also jumped down to fray.

Tyki wished his akuma would hurry the hell up and enter the building already instead of just thoughtlessly kill the people outside. Maybe he'll get another level two by the time they're finished. He chanced a look at the Princess, sitting on the stairs, clutching the innocence to her chest and looking at her supposed sister in horror. He grinned widely and disappeared.

Jun looked at Kanda and then around to try and find the bastard Noah, but the Portuguese man had effectively disappeared…until her eyes landed on the object the Princess was carrying and all the dots connected in her head.

'¡Princesa, corra! ¡Salga de aquí ahora!' (Run Princess! Get out of here now!)

A purple glow on the floor immediately behind the frightened princess made Jun's heart come to a halt inside her chest. She willed her feet to run at the same time she saw Tyki Mikk emerge from the red carpet with a wide cruel grin on his otherwise handsome face.

Kanda saw what was happening and he also tried his upmost best to rush, if anything to back his partner up.

Neither exorcist made it on time to avoid the hand that pierced through the Princess' stomach, her own hands outstretched before her threw a big golden crown into the air. At the same time both Kanda and Jun jumped to get it. The Portuguese man's eyes widened when the expensive metal made contact with Jun's hands and he was forced to back off a few feet as Mugen slashed the exact place where his arm had been just seconds before.

Jun ran to the bleeding Princess and picked her up in her arms. The bright red of her dress became darker as the Princess' blood seeped into it rapidly forming a big crimson pool on the floor.

'¡Princesa! ¡Princesa Amelia, resista! ¡Princesa!' (Princess! Princess Amelia, hang on!) She begged, but the princess was only able to cough up some more blood, painting her previously light pink dress with a gruesome stain. The only things that stopped being red were the princess' eyes. They returned to their previously dark colour. She didn't try to talk after that. She picked up the crown instead, with shaky hands and smiled as she placed the Golden item on top of Jun's curly mop of hair, letting her hand fall afterwards.

A tear escaped Jun's eye and her heartbeat accelerated drastically. She brought her hands to her head and gripped her hair as a fire unlike anything she's ever felt before showered on her from the golden crown. Her nerves became scorching lava throughout her entire body and she thought she might be crying the stuff. Then she screamed and some of the heat was released with the vocalization, so she did it again and again. Her eyes opened wide and the last thing she saw was Kanda's body on the floor, his hands gripping the carpet in an attempt to resist the shockwaves coming from her, his face contorted in fear as he looked at her.

Kanda had been able to scratch the Noah's arm somehow before he felt a powerful energy coming from behind him stealing both fighters' attention away. He saw Jun kneeling on the floor, clutching her head in agony then he saw the heavy looking crown sitting atop her head glowing with a pale light that enveloped her completely. He screamed her name in urgency and turned to run at her, but the scream she released a second later was both pitiful and powerful and it blew him backwards. He gripped the edge of the red carpet to avoid being blown out of the room and used it as leverage to crawl all the way to Jun. He made it to a couple of feet away from her, extending his arm to grab her own but she screamed again and once again and Kanda found himself back to gripping the edge of the carpet, afraid that it'll rip with the force of Jun's screams and his own weight.

He looked up at Jun, tears falling from her eyes uncontrollably and the dark honey colour was slowly replaced by a bright red before she collapsed on top of the bloody chest of the dead Princess. The crown didn't fall off.

Kanda tried once again to stand up on his shaky legs to reach Jun. He used Mugen as a support when the world around him seemed to shift and dance. He shook his head, realising that his hair was loose and getting in the way. He was very close when he saw Tyki calmly approach the fallen girls, composed and steady. Kanda swore a chain of colourful curses in Japanese, making the Portuguese man laugh.

'I win, Mr. Kitchen Knife.' He said smugly and bending to grab the crown. As soon as his fingers touched the cool surface of the golden jewel though, the Noah's entire arm was shot back, sending the man flying against the opposite wall.

Kanda smirked widely and took his chance at trying. He didn't try to get the crown though. He turned Jun around and examined her, cleaning the blood from her face as best as he could. Seeing that she had no external injuries and his legs weren't shaking as much, he picked her up onto his back and slowly made his way down the stairs stumbling less and less with each step.

He felt a shift before he even saw the Noah attack them from behind, however he was slow and he didn't take Mugen out in time. Tyki's arm was aiming at Jun's back, probably to do the same he'd done to the Princess. Kanda threw is body forwards, making them both fall down the stairs in an desperate attempt to keep both of them from being impaled but at the same time Mikk was propelled once again across the room and slammed into the wall.

'You can't touch her.' Kanda noted in shock and smirked cruelly. 'You lose, fucking bastard, you can't touch Jun!'

With that established he picked the girl back onto his back and continued to walk towards the exit. The double doors to the main hall were completely destroyed and he could see the forest from the crumbled stone wall outside along with scattered clothes belonging to the victims of the akuma. He vaguely wondered if anyone managed to run away. He pressed forward, reaching the double doors. Komui would find a way of taking the bloody innocence from Jun's head, he was sure of that. Maybe Havlaska could do it.

But Kanda never got to feel the sun on his face. As soon as he stepped out the heavy wreckage of doors, the world started to twist and shift and he found himself inside the main hall again, facing the staircase. The whole space had changed though. It was as if the battle had never happened: there were no cracks on the walls, not akuma blood on the floor and no dead Princess at the top of the stairs. There was a line of servants, butlers and maids bowing to tem in welcome, all with smiles on their faces. Kanda looked back at the doors as they opened to reveal a very shocked Tyki Mikk. His face probably resembled that of the Noah and both looked at each other, silently agreeing that a fight would be counterproductive now that it was obvious they were stuck inside the castle.

Buffy, the butler approached Kanda and welcomed him and the Queen home after hers and Lord Michael's honey moon. Both Kanda's and Mikk's horrified expressions shifted to Jun as she made a scoffing noise from Kanda's back and looked at the servants with cold cruel eyes.

'We obviously didn't make it to the party, Bertram.' She said smugly in a deeper voice Kanda had never heard before. 'The stupid villagers didn't thresh the way through the forest properly and I hurt my ankle.'

Kanda found himself unable to make a sound at the explanation due to the overdrive his mind was pulling.

'What the fuck are you talking about?!' Kanda barked at the girl on his back.

'You clearly hit your head when you fell, servant, so I will forgive your language this time.' The authoritative tone Jun used to talk to Kanda positively enraged the samurai who dropped his charge unceremoniously on the floor. When he turned to face her he froze. All the blood she'd been dirtied with was gone from her skin and dress, her hair was done up in a very intricate and complicated bun and the heavy glorious crown was sitting comfortably in between locks of shiny curls. Jun's eyes were a dark ruby colour, he face was set on a cold indifference and smugness and her sabre was pointing dangerously at Kanda's heart as she spoke.

'Know your place, Kanda. You are but my mere bodyguard. My orders are absolute and you will follow each and every one of my commands or your demise will be much, _much_ worse than death. You've been doing an excellent job for the past nineteen years; it would be a pity to get rid of you now.'

Kanda couldn't force his voice out of his throat. _A pity? A pity, she said?!_ He suppressed his reflex to get Mugen out of its sheath with a valiant effort and tched, turning his face away from Jun completely missing the scowl on her face.

'Prepare a bath for my wife, if you please, butler. We will rest the night and decide what to do in the morning.' Tyki announced with all the dignified glory a Lord could carry, effectively stealing all the servants' attention to his persona.

He extended his arm to Jun and waited for her to take it but the girl refused it, looking the man up and down and walking ahead with her head held high and her posture stiff. Tyki gritted his teeth in utter annoyance and motioned for Kanda to follow. The exorcist begrudgingly realised that, yes it was a better idea to just go along. Once Jun was safely tucked in bed, he could try and squeeze any and all information he could from the bastard Noah, even if he had to kill him!

What Tyki told Kanda that night wasn't anything Kanda was glad to hear. The Noah had been sent for the same reason the exorcists had, but the Portuguese man knew that the only way to retrieve this particular innocence was to kill the host. The reason for that was that the innocence was compatible with pretty much any human in the planet. It didn't matter if they already had a compatible innocence. The problem now was that the innocence seemed to favour Jun over Amelia and it wanted to stay with the girl, making it impossible for threats to approach her. Like an impenetrable shield.

Kanda saw with increased alarm how Tyki gently tucked Jun away for the night, without being slammed against the nearest wall like before. He thought of resuming his fight with the man that moment when Jun's voice called his name sternly.

'Stay in the room tonight, Kanda.' She ordered. 'You will continue to guard my door at night.'

Kanda nodded his consent, unable to will his voice from coming out without lashing at the girl for her insolence. The Queen didn't like this, though and send a painful shockwave at him demanding his answer. Kanda choked, doubled in pain and managed to utter the words "Yes, my Lady" through clenched teeth.

Jun seemed satisfied and lay back down on the bed with a small smile, sending Tyki away from her room.

'We are wed,' she said, 'but I don't think I'll need an heir until I reach my mother's age of thirties, so any unnecessary contact between you and me, Lord Michael, should be kept to a minimum. I am the Queen and I rule the empire. Understood?'

Kanda reviled on the way the Noah's pride crumbled at his feet with the three simple words that saved him from Jun's- no, Queen Adriana's ire.

'Yes, my Lady.'

-o0o-

Life for Kanda had been anything but easy during those three weeks. Jun had proved to be a ruthless Queen. Every order that came out of her mouth had to be followed to the letter. Every sentence she uttered had to be heard and responded to accordingly. Every action she took had to have the desired effects whether it made sense or not. Whoever didn't follow this pattern would be murdered on the spot without a second though.

Kanda turned out to be the Queen's favourite servant. This was good and bad at the same time for failure from his part was not allowed. The end Kanda would meet at such a situation would be incredibly worse than death…not that he could die, anyway. He was the one who made things happen for his Queen and even though he knew she was not Adriana, Kanda couldn't rid himself of the feeling that Jun was still there, alive, inside the mind of the innocence resting on her head.

The Queen had also taken to pet Kanda's head as he sat at her feet with his cheek on her knees. He often brought his hands to her red clad waist as he discovered she rather appreciated gestures of adoration from him. These actions would often bring tears of frustration to Kanda's eyes at being absolutely unable to do anything but silently will Jun's mind to fight the innocence. Sometimes the Queen would fall asleep sitting on her throne, with Kanda's head on her lap and her eyes would open to a dark honey colour, but she would not respond to anything. Kanda knew that Jun was fighting. She had to be. So he would talk to her softly during those moments, encouraging her to never give up because he was waiting for her right there, for as long as it took.

It was also during these moments that the malice of the Noah of Lust could be felt the most, lingering around the corridors or just watching Kanda's struggles while sitting on the King's throne, glaring at the pair of exorcists and knowing he couldn't touch the Queen with killing intent.

Tyki hadn't had it easy either since the Queen didn't quite see him as her espouse, but as a means to become Queen. She would allow him to sit by her side on the King's throne most of the times, but only of Kanda was around. When Kanda was out doing whatever mission she ordered him to, Tyki would be kicked out of the room and off to do something for her Majesty.

Kanda and Tyki found that they could easily leave the castle and come back, as long as they weren't in the company of the Queen. Kanda killed an innocent chef by order of Her Majesty when he had tried carrying Jun out of the castle when she was asleep and found himself back inside again, pretty much like the first time. Jun had demanded to know what he was doing and Kanda had quickly made up a story on how he only tried getting the Queen away from the chef that had tried to kill her. The man had screamed innocence the whole time and Kanda suppressed his tears until he went to his post at guarding the Queen's doors at night. On second thought, Kanda realised he could have said the King was plotting against her life instead.

The dark haired exorcist chose to use the relative freedom he was granted to do something productive and send for help from the Dark Order, however the townspeople kept to their initial behaviour and he found himself returning to the castle feeling like nothing had been accomplished at all. He was seriously considering returning to the Dark Order by himself when he found Freckles and Scar again during one of his missions. It took him a total of an hour to finally be able to explain what he needed to the little shits, but they did not fail him.

Two days later he received a reply from Komui. The first sentence was written in big red bold letters, underlined and framed. It read "DO NOT LEAVE JUN ALONE WITH THE NOAH AT ANY TIME!" the rest of the letter was explaining that this innocence could very well be the heart, but it could also be one more innocence evolving and growing, only without a host. As a post script and in very small letters he also told Kanda that he was going to send more exorcists to aid him and he could swear that, in between the chicken scribble and the crossed words, he was able to read the Moyashi's name.

He'd never been so happy to have the Moyashi working with him.

Neither Kanda nor Tyki realised that three weeks had gone until the arrival of Allen and Lavi.

Queen Adriana had ordered the organization of a masquerade at the castle. Kanda and Tyki were in charge of inviting the guests by telling them that they could see their family and both exorcist and Noah were relieved to see that, as soon as they crossed the threshold, the villagers assumed a whole new identity, their roles as noblemen and women giving them skills they did not possess as peasants, such as refined speech and knowledge of the world. Tyki managed to sneak in a few akuma in disguise right under Kanda's nose.

The night had gone by without a hitch. People danced and had fun while talking to each other about matters they would know nothing about had they not been under the influence of the innocence, eating pretty much like pigs without manners. The Queen had been asked to dance quite a few times by different men and a few more by her supposed spouse. It was when the grandfather clock hit midnight that the Queen whispered in Kanda's ear that she wanted him to take her to dance and the samurai did just that, like the faithful servant he was.

For a few minutes, Kanda was able to forget that the Jun in his arms wasn't his Jun. He just stared at her through his black and silver mask with a small smile on his lips as he guided her gently through the dancing floor, her face, also partially hidden behind a black mask similar to his but much more ostentatious, was smiling almost as brightly as the real Jun would in such a situation. Then, the Queen leaned close to his lips and whispered his name in such an agonizing and desperate tone that Kanda almost missed a step. When he looked at Jun she stared at him with such great smugness only a Queen could pull off.

'You want her back, don't you exorcist?' she taunted cruelly. 'You want this girl and you want to take me too. The innocence. You think that because I'm powerful that I might be the heart, but are you ready to choose? Who will you sacrifice in order to save the other?'

The look Kanda gave the Queen was one of pure murder. His heart raced with anger and he put his upmost effort into stopping his hand from crushing Jun's because, even though that accursed innocence was controlling her, Jun Avila was still there. The faint whisper he'd heard from her lips just seconds before gave him hope. She was there. She was fighting and she was going to pull through.

That was the moment when Allen and Lavi decided to crash the party, entering through the front door and looking like the perfect tourists. The Queen smirked and turned to the newcomers.

'What, pray tell, are these two peasants doing in my hall, dressed like that?'

Allen turned to the Queen and bowed. 'Pardon the intrusion, Your Majesty, but we come here with a very urgent business to discuss with you.'

'Eh? Really now? And what could two measly peasants have to tell a Queen that is so important?'

'Perhaps it means nothing to a Queen, but we are talking to the innocence.' Lavi announced raising his head in mock presumptuousness. 'You are coming with us. No buts!'

The Queen's laugh could have frozen hell a thousand times over and the fact that it came from Jun made Kanda's respect for the girl grow to a whole new level. He hoped she wouldn't remember how to do that afterwards because it was honestly frightening.

'Get them!' Jun yelled and all guests charged at the men immediately, launching themselves at the exorcists one after the other, kicking and punching and being kicked and punched back. They were more nuisances than actual fighters but if they managed to delay the exorcists out it'd be enough.

Kanda stood aside, next to the Queen, looking as Allen and Lavi became tired from fighting a hundred men and women back to back without a rest until Lavi decided he'd had enough. The red headed exorcist pulled his hammer, enlarged it and then he waved it around in a three hundred and sixty spin, knocking over most of the villagers. It took him three swings of his innocence to incapacitate all the guests. Next were Tyki and Kanda.

Tyki smirked as he charged at Lavi, using his Noah ability to walk right through the large hammer and punch him. Lavi had seen it coming, though and quickly jumped, using the hammer handle as leverage and then pulling it to dislocate the hammer behind his back and swiping Tyki along the floor, until it hit the wall.

The impact should have squashed the Noah and made him the castle's new framed painting, but he was fast and promptly ran along the hammer handle to deliver a powerful kick to Lavi's face, sending him flying across the room and crashing against the wall. The Portuguese man wasn't counting on the hammer's handle extension ability, though. As soon as he approached the seemingly unconscious exorcist, the hammer's head, now a couple of sizes smaller, hit him square in the stomach and threw him up the staircase to violently crash against the wall and leave his indent there.

The Queen narrowed her eyes at the close proximity her spouse had moved the fight to and was about to punish him accordingly when said man grabbed her by the waist. Claiming that the hall wasn't a safe place for his wife to be standing, Tyki invoked his tease, telling them to 'take care of eyepatch boy for me, please' and led the Queen to the upper floors of the castle.

Lavi had become surrounded by the purple butterflies and he couldn't see where his enemy had gone but he wasn't going to stand there and be an easy target.

'Conflagration of Ash.' He muttered bringing his innocence above his head. 'Fire Seal!'

A pillar of scorching fire enveloped him, effectively killing the tease butterflies and piercing a hole through the ceiling and the several floors above him. It was raining outside.

The sound of clashing metal brought the red headed teen's attention to the other fight that was currently taking place. Without thinking much more besides helping Allen, Lavi shouted a loud 'GROW!' at his hammer and it smashed the place where Allen was fighting Kanda.

'Lavi!' Allen shouted and Lavi realised that he could have hurt Allen too. He gave him a nervous laugh and a breathless apology before being attacked by the samurai. Lavi had never been the fastest one so he deeply thanked Allen for coming to his aid. Parrying two attacks in a row coming from Kanda was the most the bookman was ever able to do.

Allen kept slashing his big sword at Kanda's direction, not very worried that he'd cut the man, since that sword couldn't cut humans At the same time Lavi would invoke Heaven Seals and Fire Seals to try and mask his smashing hammer. Kanda had had enough of the two idiots and decided that a couple of punches were in order. He managed to mask the physical strikes to Allen and Lavi's heads in his fight and squeeze in a couple of kicks too. He knew neither the Moyashi nor the Baka Usagi were being serious and they knew he wasn't either but Kanda would be damned if he let the stupidity of this pair or morons ruin the trust his Queen had in him. He couldn't afford to leave Jun alone.

'What's taking so long, Kanda? Finish them off' Jun called from the top of the staircase, her annoyed voice driving Kanda into trying harder to get rid of his fellow exorcists.

'Yes, my Lady!'

As he said that, Kanda invoked his innocence and, with his upmost speed, slashed at the pillars supporting the ceiling right above the two young exorcists in front of him.

Seeing through his move, Lavi pulled Allen away from the impending danger and to the weakened veranda, and then he extended his hammer and retreated. The stone and wooden structure of the remaining parts of the veranda gave way under the weight of the massive hammer and finally fell taking the red headed exorcist's innocence with it.

Kanda frowned and tched sheathing his katana with seething anger however relieved he was now that the disturbance was over and he could go back to being the faithful servant. He made his way towards Jun willing his heartbeat to calm down. Everything was going to be fine. He'd find the Moyashi and Baka Usagi in the morning, maim them for barging in like the idiots they obviously were and then they could think of a plan.

His thoughts came to an abrupt stop when the painful sting of a slap on his face made his head turn and his eyes water. He hid his face quickly by bowing in apology and _prayed_ that not everything was ruined because if it was Kanda wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself.

'I told you to finish them off.' Jun's tone of voice made him shiver, tickling the back of his neck and coming back down to his toes again.

'Yes, my Lady.'

'Do not come back until they're dead.'

Kanda was unable to stop the tears from falling and Jun's shoes clicked away, the sound diminishing with her retreat.

From the shadow of a fallen pillar emerged the Noah of Lust. Tyki watched in silent pleasure the retreating form of the exorcist. He quickly turned to the staircase and made his way to the Queen's chambers, knocking softly on the door before he had permission to step inside. To say Tyki was exited was a major misunderstanding.

-o0o-

It wasn't difficult to find the two idiots. He just had to follow the path of crushed vegetation that the Usagi's hammer had left on their escape. Pair of morons. Figures that when he actually finds them they're unconscious in the middle of a swamp. He tched.

'Oi, Moyashi!' he called at the fallen albino. When the boy didn't react the pissed off samurai kicked his leg and yelled his nickname. Nothing. Kanda decided to try his luck with the Usagi. He grabbed the teen by the front of his jacked and shook him violently while yelling his nickname. After a few minutes of the rough treatment the red headed male woke up swearing at Kanda and at the headache he just caused him.

'Good you're awake.' Kanda said before he brought his fist back and punched Lavi square in the face.

'The fuck was that for, asshole?!' Lavi yelled.

'Because you fucking idiots managed to get a death sentence on your fucking heads to be fucking executed by me while Jun is in that fucking castle with fucking curly hair Noah!' Kanda explained in the coldest voice he could manage. He would never admit it out loud but, try as he might, he'd never be able to imitate the same icy tone Jun had used before.

'Could it be that you're jealous, Kanda?' Allen mocked as he sat up, trying to get the twigs and leaves out of his once pristine white hair.

'Stupid Moyashi, if she falls asleep with the Noah there he'll be able to kill her and get the innocence!'

That sentence froze all movement and sound. Even the swamp seemed to have gotten quieter.

'Then what the hell are you still doing here, BaKanda?!' Allen panicked.

'Didn't your Moyashi head hear anything I just said? I have to take your heads back to the castle or Jun will have mine instead!'

'I'm starting to think that our plan of "Go in, kick some akuma ass and come out wasn't as good as we thought it was…' Lavi mused and got himself another punch to the face.

It was then that they all felt it. A dark heavy aura overtook the whole forest in an instant, seeping into every living thing and turning the whole area into a desolate landscape with the occasional skeleton of trees. The word "innocence" left Lavi's and Allen's mouths. The name "Jun" was lot to the wind from Kanda's thoughts and he found himself praying once again for the safety of the girl.


	3. Rabbit Soup

'What do you need?' The Queen asked Tyki as he slowly closed the door behind him.

'Seeing as you've send your protector away, I can't find peace of mind to leave you alone in light of the recent events, My Lady.'

The Queen looked at the man sceptically, trying to find any trace of malice in his intentions. Finding none she lay back on her bed and sighed.

'You stay by the door.'

Tyki smirked. His plan was to wait for the girl to fall asleep and then take the crown. He'd seen the way her red eyes would turn back to brown whenever she was sleeping. He figured that was the reason she kept Kanda so close. Those were the times where the innocence was the weakest and the exorcist girl would fight it in earnest. She was getting stronger too. Tyki had felt the change in energy back at the ball and he'd noticed the faltering of the dancing couple. He was no fool, Tyki. He knew this was the best chance to try and steal the damned innocence and there was a big chance that this one was the heart, what with all the possession and what not. What Tyki didn't count on though, was that the innocence would fight the girl to stay awake. It'd been at least a couple of hours since he took Mr. Kitchen Knife's post and his legs were already getting cramps. How the hell did that bastard manage? Unconsciously, Tyki's appreciation for the exorcists grew just the tiniest bit.

It was when he'd heard the soft sigh that he realised she was _finally_ asleep. With a feral grin in place and shaky legs, the Noah made his way to the bed, silently, surreptitiously. He stopped for a second to look at the open eyes and verify that they were indeed brown. His joy at such fact was so great he was scared to wake the innocence and get himself shockwaved into the next room. Again. The Noah grinned even wider as he extended his arms and touched the crown without being rejected. And his killing intent spiked.

But the moment he took the item from the girl's head he dropped it. The thing started to bleed such a dark energy that it burned the Noah and made him fall to his knees. He could barely see what was happening around him. The only thing he knew was that he had to destroy that crown before something even more horrifying could happen to him.

The crown started vibrating and Tyki could easily hear a loud screech coming from the thing, the vibrations making the air shake violently. Bile rose in his stomach and out of his mouth. He thought absentmindedly that he should probably have eaten something more at the ball. He was just about to pass out when all of a sudden, everything stopped.

An icy cruel laugh could be heard from the spot immediately before him. He looked up just in time to get his head kicked back. He landed on his back, completely drained and unable to move as the voice kept laughing and kicking his legs and sides.

'Did you really think it would be that easy, Noah?' the voice, or rather the voices asked. Jun had regained her red coloured eyes and was now standing up in front of him, talking at the same time the innocence did. She crouched beside him and ran a finger up his chest leaving a burning trail afterwards. 'Did you really think I would let myself be destroyed by a mere Noah?' the finger stopped at the man's lips and retreated, being replaced by a soft and cold pair of lips. 'I would rather spend my whole eternity tucked away at exorcists Order!'

Tyki cursed when he was hit by a shockwave. He didn't end up in the next room this time, though. He landed in the one below.

'Jun!' called a voice from the entrance to the room. Tyki Mikk would never admit that he'd felt grateful for the exorcists presence at that moment. Breathless and weakened, the Noah started crawling his way out of that place. He was sure a fight was going to break in there and he could take his time recovering, hiding from them somewhere in the vicinity.

'What are you doing here, Kanda? I told you to kill the exorcists!' Jun screamed and charged at the man, sabres at the ready. Kanda stepped to side and so did Allen and Lavi. Jun growled and charged again. Kanda drew Mugen and blocked her.

'Jun, wake up!' Kanda's begging did nothing more than to anger the innocence. Jun started slashing madly at the samurai, delivering hit after hit that the man blocked in rapid succession while yelling at the girl to fight the damn innocence, damnit! The next second Lavi's big hammer smashed the ground between them making the already weakened floor give way and drop the four exorcists back to the main hall.

'STAY OUT OF THIS FUCKING RABIT!' Kanda yelled at the top of his lungs before he was kicked by Jun. He composed himself quickly and charged at her knowing she would parry.

'This is so wrong…' Allen muttered. 'Why is the innocence doing this?'

'Jun-chan…Yuu-chan…'

'Open your eyes, fucking Shrimp!' Kanda parried one more attack from the girl and kicked her away. She didn't even stop to breathe before charging at him again with a crazed scream and a laugh and being kicked back again. 'Wake up, Jun! Wake up!'

'Your shouting is useless, exorcist.' Both Jun and the innocence said. 'I have completely taken over this body! The only way is killing her!'

'Allow me then.' Tyki Mikk's velvety voice asked as he appeared behind Jun and grabbed her by the neck, his whole arm pierced from her back and coming out of her chest.

A sense of déjà-vu took over Kanda; the image of Princess Amelia being killed in the same gruesome was invading his mind. He saw the red bleed out from Jun's eyes and she choked on blood, dropping the crown on the floor. Her panicked expression was fixed on Kanda, her lips forming his name. Tyki withdrew his bloodied arm from the girl's back with a sneer, dropping her on the floor in order to grab the innocence only to drop it again when the same malice from before started seeping from the metal. He didn't waste a single second to gather the crown in his hands again, wincing as he did and, with a strong bolt of lighting both the crown and the innocence were reduced to nothing but green shiny dust.

The air was charged with uneasiness as the seconds ticked away.

'All of this for nothing.' Muttered Tyki when none of the exorcists' innocence broke, exploded or disappeared. It seemed to have been the checkered flag for the exorcists to attack the Noah relentlessly with equal shouts of rage.

Tyki wasn't in the mood for a fight anymore though. He kicked Lavi, punched Allen and elbowed Kanda twice, laughed manically and with a cordial goodbye, disappeared into the wall.

Lavi swore under his breath as he stood up rubbing his stomach and helping Allen in the process. 'Damn Noah are always mocking us!'

'Jun, please hang on!' Kanda begged as he cradled the dying girl on his arms, her blood soaking through his uniform and the tips of his lose hair.

'Sorry…Kanda…' Jun gasped as she tried to speak between coughs, blood filling her mouth forcing her to swallow. 'I wasn't…strong enough…'

'You were great, Jun.' Kanda whispered. 'You fought hard. Please, resist just a bit more. I will get you out of here.'

Another cough from Jun. 'I ended up being a burden to you. You should have…left me behind. Complete…complete the mission.'

'Stop talking baka.' Ordered Kanda in a soft, trembling voice and with tears falling from his eyes. He tried to move Jun onto his arms to get her help, but he only managed to hurt her more. He screamed in frustration. 'Damnit, Jun, don't you fucking dare die on me! Go get some fucking help useless Moyashi!'

Allen didn't even reply as he saw Lavi extend the handle of his hammer and fly out of there as soon as he possibly could.

'Careful, Kanda.' She wheezed. 'Someone may think you actually care…'

'I do, shrimp. I care. I love you, baka…' Jun's eyes widened and tears flowed from her eyes. '…so don't you die.'

'I…love you too…Kanda…'

Jun's breathing became so shallow Kanda could barely feel it anymore and the light of her eyes was quickly leaving them. The Usagi wasn't going to make it! Damn, why couldn't it have been him? He wouldn't have died with his body! That kind of wound wouldn't…

Kanda's eyes widened. 'I'm such an idiot! Stay awake, Jun! Just a couple more seconds…' As he said this, Kanda grabbed Mugen by the blade with his free hand and squeezed as hard as he could until he felt the katana reach the bone making him bleed profusely. He tore Jun's dress open at her chest, bunched up her undershirt and pressed his bleeding hand right on top of the gaping wound.

He had to hold Jun down the next moment as his blood entered her bloodstream, burning her and effectively healing her. Allen ran to help him when he heard her screamed at the top of her lungs and start thrashing. Kanda leaned his forehead to the crook of her neck, whispering words of encouragement, more tears escaping his eyes.

Three agonizing minutes passed until Jun settled and Allen released her. He sat back on his legs noting half-heartedly that his trousers were soaked through with Jun's blood. He released a shaky breath while watching the girl breathe quietly, unconscious, hugged close to Kanda. The dark haired samurai kept his head on Jun's shoulder, his long hair sprawled all over his back and covering the brunette's now almost bare chest. He blushed at the thought. Kanda was still pressing his hand right below the girl's breasts, her bra the only thing left from her top clothing. He didn't say anything, though and decided to look away to give them both some privacy. He could swear he heard a faint sob coming from the dark haired man and he thought about Lenalee. He didn't know what kind of weird qualities Kanda's blood had, but if that'd been Lenalee, he guessed he would have lost it too.

There was a loud sound of stone crumbling above them and Allen looked up. The sight of dust and debris falling from the hole in the ceiling just a few paces away from them made his heart skip a beat.

'Kanda, I hate to break this to you but we have to run, now!'

He heard Kanda's tongue click. The older teen gently gathered Jun in his arms and looked at Allen. 'I'm leaving your ass behind, Moyashi.'

Allen didn't have time to gape.

Both exorcists jumped out of the castle where the veranda used to be and ran as fast as they could through the desolate forest as the dust from the crumbling castle followed them in a dark cloud. In the red sunrise light, Allen and Kanda could see the oncoming figure of a red headed Lavi shouting at them to jump. They did, holding onto the hammer's handle for dear life as it shrunk to its original size at an alarming speed, leaving the crumbling castle behind. The group landed on a heap on the dirt ground, right in the middle of the village, several villagers screamed at the laud crash. A few seconds later the crown started to gather around them.

'The fuck are you all looking at?!' Yelled Kanda at the bystanders and, in spite of the language barrier, the people dispersed.

'I couldn't find a doctor, Yuu.' Lavi announced in a small voice fearing the effect that sentence would have on the other.

'It's ok, Lavi.' Allen reassured him with a small smile. 'I don't really understand what happened, but Jun's safe now.'

Lavi's eyes widened and he ran in front of Kanda to take a better look at the bloodied girl concluding that yes, she was in fact breathing normally and there was no more gaping hole in her chest or back. She seemed to be only sleeping except for the insane amount of blood that covered her, Kanda's jacket and Kanda himself.

'Where's the inn, Baka Usagi?'

'Eh? Oh, well…you see, all the people I tried talking to got scared of me or something cause they just ran back inside their houses as soon as I appeared from the forest.' Lavi explained not quite understanding the villagers' behaviour. 'It's weird, you know. Every time I came to Spain people were so nice…'

Kanda tched and started walking briskly to the nearest and coincidentally the best inn he could find. Allen and Lavi followed him, shouting at him to wait for them.

The building they entered was just slightly better decorated than the other inns and it looked newer. Aside from that it didn't differ much. Kanda approached the reception without sparing a single glance at the doorman and addressed the innkeeper in a no-nonsense tone that bordered the pissed off gradient.

'We need a room and we need it now.'

The innkeeper looked at him in fear then at Jun and then back at him. '¡No entiendo lo que dice, váyase de aquí inmediatamente!' (I don't understand what you're saying, leave immediately!)

Kanda growled at the short, bulky man, leaned over the counter and issued his coldest and maddest glare as he spoke. 'I don't give a fuck about your Spanish babbling, old man. I need a room and I am going to get one whether you want it or not.'

'Room service included, if you please!' chirped Lavi from behind him, doing nothing to alleviate the menacing aura the samurai was giving.

Kanda was about to head-butt the trembling man to get a key when a small female voice addressed them from a side door. 'I just finished cleaning two rooms upstairs.' A blonde girl wearing a maid's outfit announced. She looked like she belonged in a rich mansion rather than a village inn. With a rich man stroking her legs most likely, but Kanda refrained from thinking those kinds of thoughts. Lavi didn't.

'STRIKE!'

'I thought you liked Nao, Lavi.' Allen argued as he held the heart eyed man back.

'I do, Allen-chan, but I am a man bound by love for beauty!'

'I wonder if Nao-chan will think highly of that thought…' Allen teased and Lavi froze, going absolutely pale.

'You wouldn't tell her…'

Allen smiled his deceivably sweet, I'm-plotting-something-evil smile. Lavi gulped.

The girl showed Allen and Lavi to their room before they all followed her to the room next door where Jun and, most likely Kanda too, would be staying. The rooms were quite standard to any inn the group has ever been to; one with twin beds, one with a double bed, a dresser and a pair of chairs. Both rooms overlooked the destroyed castle, a fact no one paid attention to as Kanda lay Jun on the covers of the bed and removed some strands of curly brown hair from her face with such gentleness no one even suspected he was capable of.

'Do you have a phone?' Lavi asked the girl with a flirtatious smile.

The girl blushed and bowed her head. She showed him to the reception again where they managed to get the innkeeper to lend them a phone.

'The sooner I make this call, the sooner we leave.' He'd said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. The girl translated his request with a shy little voice that half ruined the impression Lavi was trying to pull. The innkeeper twirled his moustache and left the reception alone for him muttering bloody murder.

'Why are people being so fearful?' Lavi asked the girl before she left.

The maid squirmed uncomfortably as she answered. 'Because you came from the castle. Ever since the forest changed, a month ago, people have been coming from the castle often to steal things from people passing in the streets or from the shops. Things like clothing and food. Sometimes people would disappear too. More than once people were found dead.'

And the mystery was solved. If Lavi had correctly understood the report that Kanda sent them, then the missions the people from the castle were sent on were for the sake of getting provisions and more personnel. He figured that whoever resisted too much would most likely be slaughtered. Had Kanda killed anyone? Perhaps. The thought left a vile taste on his mouth so he decided it wasn't worth it. He plugged his golem to the phone line and waited patiently for the tone that indicated the connection was being made.

Komui's silly voice had never sounded so good in him life.

-o0o-

It took Komui less than two days to arrive at the inn with bookman. They shooed Kanda away from the room for the two hours that it took the old man to properly examine Jun and apply the right treatment. The brunette hadn't woken up once since she was brought to the inn. Not even when the maid had offered to clean her up from all the blood and grime on her body. Bookman assured Kanda she would in one or two more days.

Komui ended up staying those two days. He'd heard the whole story from Kanda and, after a word with bookman they all sat down to talk.

'This was a strange kind of innocence. It wasn't the heart, as you can see, but it was special.' The old man explained the group sitting around him. Allen and Lavi were standing beside bookman; the latter was sitting beside Jun's bed, putting away his needles after the girl's last treatment; Komui was sitting next to him, papers and reports spread all around him in a confusing mess and Kanda was still at his spot by the window. The samurai had retired to that place since bookman showed up after Jun woke up. 'Any human being could have been a host for it. The price for it was high, though as the host would have lose their mind to the innocence's wishes.'

'I support the theory that it would perhaps turn the host into an akuma killing machine.' Komui told them. 'As it appears, the innocence developed a wish of its own, like Allen-kun's did in China only this particular innocence turned against the Order too.'

The information left the party speechless. The exorcists of the entire Dark Order were vaguely aware that the innocence they were gathering and fighting with ever since they remembered was shifting. Evolving, some had said. Evolving into crystal type in Lenalee's case and evolving to save the host's life in Allen's. If that was a good thing or not still remained to be seen.

'It doesn't matter, anyway. The innocence was destroyed.' Jun muttered with her face hidden behind her bangs. 'We failed the mission because of me. Because I wasn't strong enough to fight it.'

'If you dare say one more word, Avila, I'm gonna make you regret it.' Threatened Kanda with the darkest glare he could handle.

Jun returned it to him. 'I lost you three weeks, Kanda.'

Sensing the impending doom of the whole humanity by the two furious glares the exorcists were giving each other, bookman pulled Lavi out of the room, followed by Komui and Allen.

It was a few minutes before any of the seething teen spoke. Kanda broke the silence first.

'You look good in red, Jun…just not that good.' Jun's eyes widened at the statement and at the tone full of agony that Kanda was using. 'I had you in my arms without being able to save you. My mind was going a mile per second and drawing a blank! I was so godamned scared, Jun!'

It was the first time Kanda had shouted at Jun that way, desperate and crying and admitting he was scared! Her own tears were unstoppable. She did realise Kanda cared about her a lot, otherwise he wouldn't even spare her a second glance much less a caress and yet…they were dating.

Kanda walked up to her and took her face in his hands, touching their foreheads together. 'I love you, Jun.'

Jun gasped and sobbed and begged him to 'please, please don't say it.'

Kanda shushed her gently and kissed her on the lips.

'You're looking for that person, right? Whoever that person is, they must be very special, Kanda and I know. I am not fool. You love them right?' Jun asked in a whisper with her eyes closed and her breathing accelerated. She didn't want to ask that question for she feared the answer even if deep, deep down she already knew.

Kanda smiled sadly. 'I love that person.' He confirmed but he continued before Jun could say anything. 'But I love you too. You are here with me and I am here with you. And I know you love me too.'

Shun sighed and smiled, wiping her tear away with the back of her hand. It wasn't settled by a long shot but for now it would do. Jun did love Kanda after all and she would always do even knowing what would happen as soon as the dark haired man found the person he was looking for. So she wrapped her hands around the teen's neck and kissed him with all she had because she had nothing in herself anymore that didn't belong to Kanda.

Kanda responded to the kiss with equal abandonment running his hands through the girl's back, shoulders, hips, stomach…and he stopped to look at her.

Jun got the hint. With a soft sigh she lay back on the pillows accommodating her legs so that they would be at each side of her boyfriend then she called his name in a soft sigh. Kanda smirked and lay on top of her slowly, kissing her more and more. His wandering hands found an uncovered patch of skin right above the valley of her abs. Kanda released her mouth, leaving a wet trail of open mouthed kisses, nips and licks down her collarbone and to the edge of her top. He looked back up at her as he brought his hand up, caressing her sides and pushing her top up, up, up and discarded it somewhere on the floor.

After that it was all a haze of passionate kisses and touches as their clothes became nothing but a pile on the floor, their naked bodies sliding and rubbing against each other while their mouths ravaged the lips of their lover with a fierce need to be close, to become one. Their unleashed lust knowing no boundaries and their voices moaned their desire into their breaths. Kanda's hands had found purchase on the flesh of Jun's breasts, massaging them tenderly. Jun's nails ran over the skin on Kanda's back, fusing pleasure with pain.

'Kanda…I need you…' she whispered into the samurai's lips in between slippery open mouthed kisses.

Kanda sighed and released Jun's breasts to caress her face with one hand while the others travelled southwards. With a searing kiss he pushed a finger into Jun's body making her arch off the bed with a moan.

'Grab onto me…' he whispered in her ear and licked her earlobe as he inserted another finger. Jun whined and gasped. Kanda took his time on her, biting his lip until it bled to stop himself from hurting her. Jun liked his blood away with a kiss. Their eyes locked making the blush on their faces deepen and kissed several times before Jun's mouth fell open gasping silently. Kanda grunted from deep within his chest as he joined their bodies together.

From there all the pair knew was the body of the other not even being able to tell where they ended and began. The rocking motions as the thrusting escalated along with their voices and the temperature brought the couple to levels of pleasure neither had ever experienced and they climbed even higher and higher still until all their moans joined together into the name of the person that made them whole again.

'I love you Kanda.' Jun whispered when her breathing regularized. Her heartbeat was another story altogether. 'So, so much…'

'Jun…' Kanda kissed her lips once again before accommodating on the bed so they could both fall asleep as close to each other as possible. 'I love you too. Even if you doubt it now.'

One last tear was shed and the lovers fell into the world of blissful unconsciousness.

-o0o-

'Are you sure you're okay to travel, Jun-chan?' Allen asked with a concerned frown. 'You were sleeping for a week, maybe it'd be best if you rested a bit more.'

Jun laughed. 'A week was enough rest I believe! Thank you for worrying Allen-kun, but I think I'll be just fine!'

Lavi smiled slyly and hugged Allen's shoulders. 'She'll be more than fine, Allen ma' man! After all the sounds these ears of mine picked up last night I am sure Yuu-chan will keep Jun-chan very fit!'

'Lavi!' Jun was absolutely mortified, the bright red blush on her face reached all the way to her ears and neck. And she was having such a good morning too! She'd woken up warmly pressed to Kanda while he hugged her close and even said good morning to her! They shared the shower and another round of lovemaking before they got their clothes on. Jun was glad to be wearing shorts again instead of dresses. Then they went down to the buffet for breakfast and were joined by both Lavi and Allen.

'Baka Usagi! You're just jealous because you don't have the guts to ask chickpea (3) out or you wouldn't have to listen in on others to satisfy yourself.' Kanda said calmly while sipping on his tea as if he'd said nothing. Then he fixed Lavi with a glare. 'And if you say my first name one more time your guts will never make it to next day much less to chickpea's bed.'

Lavi froze and Allen and Jun laughed even though the both of them were sporting a prominent blush. Allen chanced a glance at Komui, who was sitting in front of Bookman just a few chairs away and his heart stopped at the evil glint in the man's eyes as he looked at the albino.

'You better not even think about my Lenalee in any such way, Allen-kun. I would not be able to guarantee your safety or your food's.'

_If only he knew…_

A commotion at the reception brought the group's attention to the entrance of the buffet where two youngsters were trying to reach their table against the staff's efforts to stop them. The doorman and two maids were physically holding them back while at the same time barking orders to leave the establishment.

'¡Solo queremos hablar con ellos!' (We only wanna talk to them!) Scar yelled above the staff, kicking and pushing for all he was worth.

'¡Exorcistas! ¡Exorcistas, por favor!' Begged Freckles as soon as he spotted them.

Jun stood up from the table with a determined look on her face. She knew she owed them an apology since they couldn't save Princess Amelia, their little sister. Kanda followed her even if he couldn't speak Spanish. Truth was, after the castle ruins were thoroughly inspected, bookman and the medical team managed to save most of the villagers and finders that had disappeared but thanks to the akuma that Tyki managed to sneak inside, not all lives were spared. Bookman also retrieved Amelia's body from the wreckage.

'¡Está bien! Están con nosotros.' (It's okay. They're with us.) Reassured Jun approaching the staff. The two teens smiled for a few seconds before the innkeeper shoved them and Jun back.

'¡No! ¡Ya basta! ¡No quiero más bribones en mi posada! ¡Todos ustedes, váyanse ya!' (No! That's enough! I don't want any more rascals in my inn! All of you, go away already!) The short inn keeper shouted, pointing a finger at a very angry Jun. The girl decided to employ Kanda's favourite tactic and unsheathed one of her sabres holding it right to the innkeeper's neck, drawing a small drop of blood that ran smoothly through the blade and dropped to the hardwood floor before her very pissed off voice reached the man's ears.

'Ya tuve suficiente con la actitud ingrata y degradante de los habitantes esta aldea. ¡Todos ustedes no pasan de patéticas escusas de gente sin escrúpulos! ¡Deberían agradecernos por salvar a sus familiares! ¡Espero que un akuma se los coma a todos!' (I've had enough with the ungrateful and degrading attitude of this village. You're nothing but pathetic excuses of unscrupulous people! You should thank us for saving your families! I hope an akuma eats you all!)

The innkeeper visibly paled at the threat and Jun lowered her sabre. When she did, the bulky man hightailed out of the inn to never be seen again by the exorcists. News of his resignation reached Komui's ears only weeks later. Lavi gulped out loud at Jun's demonstration of evilness. 'I guess your attitude really runs in your blood, ne Kanda?'

The samurai's smirk could freeze a desert.

'Lo siento.' (I'm sorry.) Those were the only words that left the female exorcist's lips when she faced the two brothers. Scar and Freckles clenched theirs fists crying silently.

'Gracias, exorcistas. Gracias por salvar a nuestro padre.' Freckles muttered, his face caked with tears and snot.

'La gente de la aldea va a enterrar ataúdes vacías por sus familias. Nosotros queremos agradecerles por traer…a nuestra hermanita…a casa…' (The village people will bury empty caskets for their families. We wanted to thank you for bringing…our little sister…home…' Scar thanked, breaking down in sobs when he reached the end of his sentence and yelling the rest before he couldn't say it. '¡Sabemos que hicieron todo lo que pudieron para salvarlos a todos!' (We know you did what you could to save everybody!)

Jun couldn't keep a straight face anymore and she also broke down crying, hugging both boys while they all sobbed. The raw pain of their little moment reassuring not only Jun, but the other exorcists, including Bookman and Komui, that even though they've seen many deaths throughout their lives, they were still human; they could still feel pain at those deaths and grieve. And as he wiped his face with his sleeve, Allen vowed for the thousandth time since he became an exorcist that he would rid the world of the Earl for good. Similar thoughts filling the other exorcists minds as well.

The funerals took place simultaneously at the village's graveyard. The space had to be hastily expanded since it didn't have the full capacity to lodge that many caskets. The inhabitants of Pacifica finally stopped ignoring the exorcists completely choosing to nod faintly at them in mourning thankfulness instead. Some of them smiled and verbally thank them for returning their loved ones to them with small sad voices.

Several women and men were clearly widowed after their spouses had failed to return from the castle. Their children crying next to them asking why they'd never see their mommy or daddy anymore. A handful of children had lost both parents and were in the process of adjusting to living with their neighbours.

Through the entire miserable ordeal, the exorcists stayed a few paces behind the villagers paying their respects and apologizing to those they couldn't save.

When the prayers were over Komui took it upon himself the hard task of educating the remaining survivors about the Millennium Earl so that they wouldn't have to return to the village to rid it of akuma made by the deceased loved ones. He caused many more tears amongst the people but like Bookman said himself: the human heart heals, slowly but surely and never forgetting. Jun had to translate his speech for him.

'I think I'm gonna see Nao-chan when I get home.' Lavi announced with a smile towards Jun when they were back on the train to London.

'If I see a single tear on her face, I'll make a soup out of you, Baka Usagi!' Jun threatened playfully.

'Baka…Usagi…? You ruined Jun-chan, Yuu! Now she's talking like you!' Lavi yelled as he pointed at Kanda belatedly realising that he'd used the samurai's given name. 'Help me!'

'Come back here, Usagi so I can cut you in pieces!'

'Maa, Kanda. He didn't do it on purpose!' Allen said trying to save Lavi from his gruesome death.

'Shut up, Moyashi!'

Allen's brow twitched. 'It's Allen, BaKanda! Get it right for once!'

'I'll add some beansprouts to the rabbit soup as soon as I'm done skinning the rabbit, then.' Kanda barked at the British teen while holding Lavi by the neck.

'Kanda we're supposed to be happy we're going home…'

'Shut up! I'll add shrimp too!'

'Sazansouru, activate!'

'They're back to their usual lively banter.' Komui commented while observing the bickering group of teenagers at the back of the cart as if he was a proud mother watching her children. 'I can't wait to see my lovely Lenalee.'

Bookman sipped on his tea calmly and nodded. The old man couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad was lurking in their near future tough and as he too looked at the teens screaming and laughing his heart flied towards them in prayer for their safety.

'Allen-kun, I've been meaning to ask…' Jun said from the heap on the floor that the exorcists had become after their culinary lesson from Kanda, who was now calmly sitting on one of the seats nearby. They were all now covered in bruises and wet with sea water. Kanda's jacket was even a bit scorched. 'Where's Link-san? Shouldn't he be guarding you?'

Allen and Lavi stiffened and laughed nervously. 'Well, you see…'

Back at the Order HQ, a blonde man was laying on his futon with a great stomach ache after spending hours on the male service for eating some of those cupcakes his charge offered him at breakfast.

'I swear I'm going to get my revenge, Walker, mark my words!'

* * *

And that's it! This fic ended up being a lot darker that I had originally intended, I hope you can forgive me for that.

Also, since I haven't paid much attention to Howard Link I decided to leave him behind on this mission instead of making him extremely OOC. He wouldn't have too much of a role on this fic either…¬3¬

* * *

(3) Chickpea is Kanda's nickname for Nao. His nickname for Jun is Shrimp. Pardon my lack or originality.


End file.
